Worried about offense?

The Reds haven’t had many games this season where they are blown out, but that was exactly what happened in an 8-1 loss to the Brewers on Wednesday.

*In terms of the postseason situation, the Reds (93-62) trail the Nationals (94-61) by one game for the No. 1 seed in the NL playoff bracket. Because Cincinnati was 2-5 vs. Washington this season, they would lose the tiebreaker. That effectively means the Reds need to be a game up on the Nats at season’s end to get the top seed.

*Some hitters are in funks lately — namely Brandon Phillips (5-for-39), Scott Rolen (6-for-43), Chris Heisey (4-for-38) and Jay Bruce (7-for-50) as pointed out by stats man Joel Luckhaupt. In 22 September games, the Reds have been held to two runs or less nine times and they are 12-10 this month. The good news is they have eight games to find a groove before the postseason. Acting manager Chris Speier wasn’t worried about the offense’s lack of production of late.

“Not really,” Speier said. “I’m sure we’d like to get on all cylinders here shortly. I’m sure things will take care of themselves hopefully tomorrow and the rest of the way out. Everybody is in that situation. They’re hoping the pitching and the hitting come together and usually the teams that have that are the ones that succeed.”

Reds starter Bronson Arroyo, who has been burned by low run support several times this season, wouldn’t mind seeing more scoring from his team.

“That’s always been a concern since I’ve been on this ball club,” Arroyo said. “We’ve had to grind a lot this year to win some close games. In the playoffs, it’s going to be a coin toss. Every facet of the game is going to be, so you can’t just pin one thing on a team and say ‘This has got to happen if you want to win.’ I think runs are definitely a premium at that time of year, and we haven’t been scoring a lot as it is in these regular season games. I hope we get a little bit hotter and put some more pressure on these guys. It’s not so much just putting runs on the board, but I think having more guys on base and putting their starting pitcher in some more compromising positions to get their pitch count up and to feel like we have some pressure on them all the time would definitely be beneficial for us.”

*In Wild Card news, the Pirates painful slide continued with a 6-0 loss to the Mets. Pittsburgh is now eliminated from the postseason after a promising start to the season.

*Arroyo, who gave up four runs in six innings, allowed five-straight hits in the three-run third inning — all with two outs. Before the big rally, Arroyo had retired eight of his first nine batters.

*No one in the bullpen fared well tonight. Logan Ondrusek gave up two runs on Ryan Braun’s 41st homer of the year in the seventh. Sam LeCure gave up a run in the eighth. Alfredo Simon gave up a run in the ninth.

No. 3 star: Joey Votto — 2-for-2, with a RBI double in the first inning and he reached base in all four plate appearances. Votto has gotten a hit in 11 of his last 12 games and reached safely in 40 of 77 plate appearances since returning from the DL. He has 20 walks.

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2 Comments

Haha. Just keep thinking we have no offense! We love it, because with our pitching, we don’t have to have the best offense around. If there is one knock on this offense it is that they are very very streaky……rather have these guys streaking badly right now than any other time….watch out come playoff time. Good luck to your Nats Sam! I bet you wish Strasburg could be part of it…..

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